For the second consecutive season, Chur finish third at this level, a position that on paper suggests consolidation but, in reality, tells a far more complicated story. 

This was a campaign of fine margins, of statistical promise rubbing uncomfortably against cold outcomes, and of a club that found itself repeatedly close to something bigger without quite being allowed to grasp it. Luzern ultimately took the title, running just far enough ahead to keep the chasing pack at arm’s length, while Basel U21 followed three points back. Relegated Winterthur, widely expected to dominate along with Luzern, could only manage fourth, finishing four points behind Chur, who ended the season with the league’s best defence, the second-most potent attack, and an expected points total that suggested they should have been comfortably higher than third. Five expected points clear of their actual return and seven ahead of anyone else, Chur were one of the division’s great underperformers by xG – not through dysfunction, but through inefficiency.

The broader Swiss football landscape only added to the sense that this season was slightly unhinged. In the Super League, chaos reigned once more. A year after newly promoted Stade Lausanne stunned the country by winning the title, it was St Gallen who collapsed entirely, finishing bottom and tumbling into the second tier. Grasshoppers, ninth the season before, slid into the promotion playoff spot, setting up a final reckoning with Chur for a place in the top flight. Basel U21, barred from promotion, watched on as the pathway opened for others.

The first leg at Obere Au was tense, tight, and finely balanced. Chur struck first through Iker Huerte, the striker reacting quickest after a mazy, line-breaking run from Zidan Tairi, only for Grasshoppers to equalise almost immediately. It was a game played on a knife-edge, reflected perfectly in the underlying numbers: 1.01 expected goals for Chur, 1.05 for the visitors. Neither side exerted sustained dominance, yet Chur will rue the clear-cut chance squandered by Xabier Iriondo early in the second half – the kind of moment that quietly rewrites seasons.

If the first leg felt cautious, the return at the Letzigrund was anything but. In front of more than 13,000 loud spectators, Chur produced a start that bordered on euphoric. Their central rotations and fluid attacking structure overwhelmed Grasshoppers in the opening exchanges, and within minutes Zidan Tairi had finished calmly from a Jano Monserrate through ball. For ten minutes, Chur looked like a team ready for the Super League, confident in possession, incisive between the lines, and unafraid of the occasion.

Football, as ever, had other ideas. Against the run of play, Alessandro Bordoni levelled, and shortly after half-time Jose Henrique struck what proved to be the decisive blow. Once again, the margins were brutal. Chur posted 1.65xG to Grasshoppers’ 1.78, missed another clear-cut chance – this time through Huerte – and were left to contemplate how different the tie might have been had they found themselves 2–0 up inside the opening ten minutes. Instead, defeat condemned them to another season at this level, a result that felt deeply at odds with their overall performance across both legs.

Over the course of the league campaign, the pattern was not one of inconsistency but of frustrating symmetry. Chur collected 31 points in the first half of the season and 32 in the second. They took 32 points at home and 31 away. The real damage was done in the fifteen draws that littered their fixture list – dropped points without an obvious tactical or psychological pattern. When a difficult spell arrived late in the season, frustration inevitably found a target. Some voices began to draw unflattering comparisons between Inaki Arriola and his Basque contemporary Mikel Arteta, invoking familiar narratives about missed opportunities and “bottled” positions. It was an unfair shorthand, but one born of proximity to success rather than distance from it.

The attacking output tells its own story. In the absence of long-time talisman Dion Cakolli, four players reached double figures for goals: Jano Monserrate with 13 goals and 7 assists, Zidan Tairi with 12 and 7, Xabier Iriondo contributing 10 goals and 12 assists, and Iker Huerte finishing with 10 goals and 6 assists. The burden was shared, the structure sound. Only Matteo Gambardella and Andrea Favara endured disappointing seasons by their standards, combining for just five goals and six assists between them, a stark contrast to their previous influence.

Change, inevitably, follows stasis. This summer will see Brandon Soppy and David Jacovic depart Graubünden after two years at the club, with Chur releasing a brief statement wishing both players well in their future careers. Their exits, though expected, further underline the uncertainty facing Arriola as he surveys the landscape ahead.

Financially, the picture is stark. With a reported bank balance more than a quarter of a million euros in the red and no obvious sellable assets, the coming months present Arriola with a defining set of choices. Does he double down on what has worked, trusting that tactical refinement alone can turn draws into wins and expected points into actual ones? Does he pivot towards longer-term recruitment, accepting another season at this level as a necessary step in the club’s broader sustainability, even as finances tighten further? Or does he go all in, recruiting aggressively, stretching the club’s limits in the belief that promotion – and the stability it brings – must be seized now?

Chur, quite plainly, are caught between a rock and a hard place. The path chosen this summer may come to define not only the next season, but the trajectory of Arriola’s career to date.

Away from the immediate pressures of the first team, there was at least a quieter note of optimism. Last month, the club announced four new academy scholars: towering striker Ilan Tomic, forward Nenad Juric, attacking midfielder Amar Kostovski, and defender Gianluca Brullhart. They will not shape the promotion race just yet, but as Chur continue to invest in their academy infrastructure, moments like these serve as a reminder that the club’s future is being built on more than just the next league table. 

For now, though, the question remains unresolved. Chur were close. Painfully close. And sometimes, that is the hardest place to be